I want to animate objects to fall from the top to form a 20x9 grid, beginning in one of the corners. I tried to use the repeater but unfortunally the first object to start its descent finishes simultaneously with the last one, which is not what I want. Basically, by the time the 11th object appears on the screen, I want the 7th to be on the same plane as the first, and so on and so forth. Won't bother animating 178 more layers individually.
3
Replies
Card Dance - and oldie but a goodie, and a gradient ramp to make the pieces move.
Start with a comp that is the same size as your grid. Let's say the rectangle is 100 X 100 and Repeater 1 is set to 20 copies 120, 0. Repeater 2 would be 9 copies 0, 120. That means the comp size is 2400 X 1080 and the position of the shape layer would be 60, 60 assuming that the rectangle transform properties were 0, 0. That will give you your grid comp.
Next, create a gradient comp. I used a 50% gray rectangle for the base and 9 copies of a horizontal stroked path + Trim paths and some directional blur to give me an easy way to wipe on a color change row by row.
The last step is to set up a new comp with the frame rate and frame size you want (Standard HD) add the Gradient Grid comp and the Gradient comp, add Card Dance, and a Comp Camera. You get something like this in just a few minutes:
That old effect by Brian Maffit is probably the best solution for this kind of thing. It's been a while, but I used to use Card Dance all the time.
If you need extruded shapes like you are showing in your screenshot then C4D (even C4D lite) or Blender is your best option. Trying to work with 180 extruded shape layers in AE and it's pretty easy to get this kind of motion in Blender.
Just for fun - here's Card Dance at work:
AdChoices